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Series: Designing accessible resources for people with disabilities and Deaf people

Creating Accessible 
Print Materials

Tip Sheet No. 1

July 2017

Organizations use a variety of print 
materials, including brochures and 
newsletters, to inform the public about 
their work. These public-awareness 
materials become a window into the 
group’s identity; what it stands for, and 
what role it plays in the community. 
Organizations also create print materials 
specifically for service users, such as 
fact sheets, consent forms, and intake 
forms. These materials offer service users 
information they need to participate in 
your programs. Because the goal of print 
materials is to convey critical information 
to all potential and actual service 
recipients, agencies should ensure that 
they are accessible to everyone, including 
people with disabilities. 

Plain language: 
Making information 
easier for everyone

Writing in plain language means writing 
clearly. Material in plain language 
takes the reader less time to read 
and understand because it tells them 
exactly what they need to know without 
unnecessary words or expressions. The 
following are tips for writing in plain 
language. 

› Know the audience. Know the expertise 
and interest of the average targeted 
reader and write for that person. Don’t 
write for subject-area experts, lawyers, 
or your management, unless they are 
the intended audience. 

› To meet the needs of the reader, 
keep the messages short and simple. 
Organize content by putting the most 
important information first. 

› Use headings. Headings help readers 
find their way through the material. 
They should capture the essence of all 
the material that follows.

› Pull the reader into the document by 
using pronouns. Pronouns help make 
the information more meaningful. Use 



Creating Accessible Print Materials

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“you” for the reader (“I” when writing 
question headings from the reader’s 
viewpoint) and “we” for your agency).

› Use the active voice to clarify who is 
doing what. Sentences written in the 
passive voice tend to obscure the point. 
Active voice is generally shorter, as well 
as clearer. Active sentences contain the 
actor first (as the subject), then the 
verb, then the object of the action.

Examples: 
Active: “Advocates answer phones 
24 hours a day.”
Passive: “Phones are answered by 
advocates 24 hours a day.” 

› Use short sentences, paragraphs, and 
sections. Readers can get lost in long, 
dense text with few headings. When 
you divide material into digestible 
sections, it is both easier to follow 
and adds white space, opening your 
document visually and making it more 
appealing.

› Avoid using complex words, confusing 
jargon, legal terms, and acronyms. 
Eliminate any excess words and use 
the simple present tense whenever 
possible, for example: “We manage 
a shelter program” instead of “We 
are responsible for management of a 
shelter program.”

› Lists and tables can help you shorten 
and clarify complex material. They 
also add white space, which makes the 
document more appealing to readers.

For additional information on writing in 
plain language: 

PlainLanguage.gov 

www.plainlanguage.gov

Center for Plain Language 

www.centerforplainlanguage.org

Plain Language Medical Dictionary

https://perma.cc/HL7L-G7UZ

Visually accessible and 
welcoming material

A variety of design choices, from the font 
to the colors and use of white space, 
affect the visual accessibility of printed 
materials. 

Font

The font you use can have an impact on 
the readability of your document. Sans 
serif fonts, such as Arial, Helvetica, and 
Verdana are the easiest for people to 
read. The fonts listed below are more 
difficult to read, and should be avoided:

› Serif fonts use a combination of thick 
and thin strokes. They also have flared 



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extensions or strokes on the tips of 
letters. This makes them difficult to read.

› Cursive fonts are also difficult to 
read. They look like hand-written pen 
or brush strokes and letters often are 
connected to one another.

› Extra thin, extra black, and italicized 
fonts tend to be difficult to read in 
smaller sizes.

› Avoid capitalizing all letters in a 
sentence. 

A good font size to use for printed 
publications is 14 points, because it 
eases eye strain and makes the text 
easier to read. 

Text alignment

How you align text on the paper 
determines how easy the flow is for 
readers. Text that is centered on the page 
has uneven left and right margins. Each 
line of text will start in a different spot, 
causing disruption in the text flow. Text 
that is aligned to the right margin (right-
justified) creates an uneven left margin, 
making it difficult to find the next line of 
text. Justified alignment creates perfectly 
aligned margins on both sides. To line up 
the margins, variable spaces are inserted 
between words, making it difficult to 
read. The easiest alignment to read is 
left-justified; the left margin is fixed and 
the right margin is ragged, making the 
beginning of each line consistent and 
easy to find. 

Leading

The space between lines of text is called 
leading. As readers move their eyes 
across text, ensuring that the lines of text 
are spaced at one-and-a-half or two times 
helps readers move their eyes onto the 
next line. 

Hyphenation

Avoid hyphenating words. Hyphenation 
disrupts the reading flow. 

White space

People with low vision and those with 
cognitive disabilities benefit from the use 
of white space. White space is the area 
of the document without text, images, 
tables, etc. It is useful in separating 
chunks of content and unrelated elements 
in a design and helps to improve the 
visual layout. Margins are elements of 
white space. 

Colors

When you are picking the colors to use 
in your written material you will want 
to think about making the information 
accessible to people in a variety of 
contexts and with various types of 
disabilities, for example: 



Creating Accessible Print Materials

› people with low vision;

› people with age-related vision issues 
such as macular degeneration; and

› people who experience color blindness 
(deuteranope is insensitivity to green; 
protanopia is insensitivity to red; and 
tritanopia, very rare, is insensitivity 
to blue).

There should be sufficient contrast 
between the color elements you choose. 
Select opposing colors on the color wheel. 
Avoid using color as the sole means of 
conveying information. For example, on 
forms you may see something like, “All 
fields in red are required.” A better way to 
make these distinctions would be to say, 
“Required fields are red and marked with 
an asterisk.” The color makes the fields 
easy to identify for users who access 
color, and the asterisk allows all users to 
recognize it.

Paper

Choosing the best paper for the 
document also increases readability. 
People who have low vision may use a 
magnifying glass, a video magnifier, 
digital reading aids, or reading pens. 
Common white paper often produces a 
significant glare, which can make reading 
more difficult. An off-white paper with a 
matte finish is the most readable. Glossy 
paper, typically used in magazines, 
creates a glare and can make text and 

Design elements for visually accessible materials

Creating Accessible Websites2Features of an 
accessible websiteWhile it is essential to select a developer 
who knows how to build accessibility 
features into your website, it is also 
important for you to know what those 
features should be. Accessibility 
features allow all users, with and without 
disabilities, to experience the website 
fully. To make this possible, the site should 
provide a variety of ways for users to 
interact with the content—including 
visuals and audible/video files. The site 
should also provide ways for users to 
move through the pages, and understand 
the information, including:
Interaction› Add alternative text (Alt text) to all 
images on your website. Alt text is a 
description of the image or object that 
allows people using screen readers to 
understand the content of the graphic.
› Ensure that you caption videos on your 
website. Captioning is the process of 
converting the audio content of a 
video into text and displaying the text 
on a screen. 
› Any audible and video files on your 
site should have transcripts available 
(printed version of the audio content).
› Avoid using CAPTCHAs to block spam. 
CAPTCHA stands for Completely 
Automated Public Turing Test to Tell 
Computers and Humans Apart. These 
are often used to weed out spambot 
comments from human comments. 
CAPTCHAs are typically images of 
distorted characters that are not 
accessible to screen readers; even if 
there is an audio option, the distorted 
audio prevents people with some types 
of disabilities from posting comments.
Operation› Define the purpose behind each link 
on your website to help visitors decide 
whether they want to follow the link. 
Hyperlink text should provide a clear 
description of the link destination, 
rather than only providing the URL or 
“click here.”
› Use headings correctly to provide 
content and structure to your website 
and to communicate the content’s 
organization on the page. Assistive 
technologies use them to provide in-
page navigation. The most important 
heading has the rank 1 (<h1>), the 
least important heading rank 6 (<h6>). 
Headings with an equal or higher rank 
start a new section; headings with a 
lower rank start new subsections that 
are part of the higher ranked section.
Color contrast

Sans serif fonts

Use of white space

Left alignment



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images difficult to recognize. When you 
are printing on both sides of a sheet, you 
will want to use at least 24-lb. paper—
heavy enough so that the print does not 
show through on the other side.

Graphics and images

Graphics and images are a great way to 
break up blocks of text, enliven materials, 
and support your messages. Avoid putting 
images or graphics behind text because it 
makes the text difficult to read.

Your printed material can promote 
and publicize the accessibility of your 
agency, programs, and services. Most 
people are familiar with the universal 
symbol of accessibility to follow, which 
indicates access for people with limited 
mobility including wheelchair users. 

disability access symbol


This symbol and others connoting 
disability access are available free of 
charge from the Graphic Artists Guild-
Downloadable Disability Access 
Symbols at https://perma.cc/TFZ7-BKFV.

Below are additional resources for 
creating visually accessible materials:

Clear Print Accessibility Guidelines 

https://perma.cc/HS6Q-LUM7

Accessibility Guidelines for 
Print Materials

https://perma.cc/JN75-2WDQ 

General Guidelines on 
Printed Material

https://perma.cc/EHH7-XZFR

The Accessibility Color Wheel 

https://perma.cc/59WQ-VPY6

is an online tool to check the accessibility 
of color combinations and to see how 
those color combinations look from the 
perspective of people with color blindness. 

Accommodating individual 
needs: Creating alternate 
formats

While you will be creating materials that 
meet the needs of the widest array of 
users, you should also be prepared to 
create alternate versions of your print 
materials if you receive requests for them. 
Examples of alternate formats include: 

› large print (at least an 18-point font) 
for people who have low vision;

› braille, a tactile writing system for 
people who are blind or have low 
vision; and 

› an audio version of print materials, 
which people with low vision and 



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those who are blind often use to 
gather information. Audio can also 
be beneficial for people with learning 
disabilities who have difficulty with 
written text.

For additional information on creating 
alternate formats, see:

A Guide to Making Documents 
Accessible to People who are Blind 
or Visually Impaired

https://perma.cc/9W4Y-SAFK

Best Practices and Guidelines for 
Large Print Documents

https://perma.cc/MQ2K-5UAQ

Braille Transcription Services 

https://perma.cc/DPU9-944D

Agencies can make their printed materials 
both visually appealing and disability-
friendly by following the tips presented 
in this document. These tips benefit not 
only readers with a range of disabilities 
but also older people, those in trauma, 
and those for whom English is a second 
language.

For more information

The Center on Victimization and Safety 
(CVS) at the Vera Institute of Justice works 
with communities around the country 
to fashion services that reach, appeal 
to, and benefit all victims. CVS’s work 
focuses on communities of people who 
are at elevated risk of harm but often 
marginalized from victim services and 
the criminal justice system. We combine 
research, technical assistance, and 
the training to equip policymakers and 
practitioners with the information, skills, 
and resources needed to effectively serve 
all victims. To learn more about CVS, 
contact cvs@vera.org. 

This project was supported by Grant 
No. 2014-TA-AX-K002 awarded by the U.S. 
Department of Justice (DOJ), Office 
on Violence Against Women (OVW). 
The opinions, findings, conclusions, 
and recommendations expressed in this 
publication are those of the authors(s) 
and do not necessarily reflect the views 
of DOJ, OVW.